Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017353
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017353
Because it is shrouded by trees and has a level carnageway with no rise to the crown of the arch, this handsome and well-engineered bridge does not make its special qualities obvious to modem road-users.
Indeed, the fact that it was the fIrst bridge to have weight-saving hollow ribbed spandrels instead of a solid masonry arch is one of its technical accomplishments that remains completely invisible.
On a single arch of 34.1m span, it crosses a steep-sided gorge at the uppermost reach of the Dee estuary where the river has a remarkable tidal rise of 6m and more. The foundations laid in the first building season (1804) were almost immediately washed away, and work recommenced under new contractors in the following year, the bridge finally being completed and opened in 1807/8. Designed by Thomas Telford in association with the celebrated Edmburgh archItect and painter, Alexander Nasmyth, the bridge has a very striking appearance. The arch is flanked by rounded turrets which, together with the corbelled and battlemented parapets, convey a marked castellated effect. To assist the flow of water at high tides, each of the approaches is pierced by three tall and narrow pointed flood-arches.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Dumfries and Galloway’, (1986).
